Magnus Marketing Blog

A friend of mine was consulting with a small startup firm that had been bought out by some VC types. Working directly with the founders, she derived and explored various avenues for their homegrown product to fit, made tons of prospecting calls with zero marketing support (no money for lists, good collateral, good website, etc), set up initial meetings...all during the height of the recession when IT spending was cut significantly. One of the meetings led to the identification of a senior sales rep, a true down in the trenches heavily networked salesguy who - when laid off from his company (because he brought in not enough sales) started to work with the startup also.

Five minutes after said salesguy joins the firm, he does what any good salesperson does - breaks into his rolodex and sets up meetings. Not extraordinary or unusual by any means - in fact, quite expected. Well, the company gets one major opportunity and goes nuts. Suddenly the salesguy is put in charge of all sales and is managing my friend. The first thing that happens is she is removed from any executive level support and is shut down from any further input to the company, the second thing is that she is labelled a telemarketer and told to quickly bang the phone and get appointments. No proposals, no demos, no meetings without the micromanging oversight of the salesguy (who hasn't closed a deal yet). Her strategic and analytical manner and philosophy is quickly rejected. Said salesguy chats up the executives and is handed golden keys to whatever he needs - new website, collateral, anything.

The founders themselves, synergistic with my friend, are depowered and shoved into subordinate positions with little input into the company they built. The company, rapidly gaining a reputation for being friendly, flexible, and nice is becoming an ossified form of itself driven by words like "and that is how it will be" and "process over innovation" and "dollars over customers".

My friend, a senior level marketing and sales person who has closed deals, built inside sales and telemarketing teams, and brought innovation in business development process was told - you do what we say or else bye-bye. The job they were going to offer her was that of a telemarketer, pounding the phone. No longer were her skills, experience, and expertise a fit, no longer was she valued - of course, she would have been valued if she had a Rolodex and brought contacts.

Watching as her beloved founders and their product are taken over by people with no soul was too painful. She said the words "the engagement will have to end" and disgustingly walked away...knowing another firm with great potential will likely never achieve it because they don't care anymore about anything 'cept the green.

Moral of the story: Entrepreneurs - if you want real success, stay away from the venture capitalists, never give up more than 51% of your company, and retain control. Make sure the you hire people like my friend, people who can execute and do the job - find the holes and fill them. Competitive advantage can come from culture and customer focus too, ya know.